Sweeney supports free speech of players, despite Tencent's Epic Games investment stake
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney shot down any speculation that the company will block the free speech of players. "That will never happen on my watch as the founder, CEO, and controlling shareholder."
As calls for boycotts of Blizzard spread across the Internet, players have taken aim at Fortnite and Unreal Engine developer Epic Games. The company is partially owned by Chinese media conglomerate Tencent Holdings, but Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has clarified what that invesment stake means from a decision making standpoint at the company. We asked Tim about Tencent in an interview at GDC 2018.
Speaking to The Verge this week, an Epic Games spokesperson stated, “Epic supports everyone’s right to express their views on politics and human rights. We wouldn’t ban or punish a Fortnite player or content creator for speaking on these topics.” Sweeney has been pretty vocal today on social media, tweeting at several critics to clarify how decisions are made at Epic Games.
Here's a breakdown of the conversation:
Jason Schreier, Kotaku: It'll be fascinating to see what Blizzard does and says today. Do they backtrack, risking the loss of billions of dollars as a result? Or do they continue supporting an authoritarian regime, alienating fans and employees in their never-ending pursuit of growth? Capitalism owns
Transdimensional CatSpider, @TCatspider: I'm more interested what @TimSweeneyEpic has to say. His company is 40% owned by Tencent after all.
Tim Sweeney, Epic Games: Epic Supports the rights of Fortnite players and creators to speak about politics and human rights.
Гусебесие и сосаети, @calibrono: so if say @tfue said "Free Hong Kong" in a post-game interview, you wouldn't do anything?
Tim Sweeney, Epic Games: Exactly.
Cherrish Choerry, @CherrishChoerry: I thought your company had a majority investor from the Chinese? Surely it would just end up in a similar situation, Investor pulls out, big chunk of cashflow? It’s not the right decision to make but I’m sure it puts any company on the edge
Tim Sweeney, Epic Games: Epic is a US company and I’m the controlling shareholder. Tencent is an approximately 40% shareholder, and there are many other shareholders including employees and investors.
Cherrish Choerry, @CherrishChoerry: 40% is a big cut though. They’re already apparently pulling out of the NBA League. Can you honestly say if a similar event happened you wouldn’t have to, sever ties with said influential figure, i.e the NBA coach/Hearthstone Champ
Tim Sweeney, Epic Games: Yes, absolutely. That will never happen on my watch as the founder, CEO, and controlling shareholder.
TIM GOT THAT BIG DICK ENERGY pic.twitter.com/JNGOPIaYiU
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) October 9, 2019
In our interview with Sweeney at GDC 2018, he detailed the relationship with Tencent. "They're just going around and making investments in companies they think have potential in the industry. They've been a good partner in just giving us advice, but we don't see them all that much actually."
Regarding censorship or penalties for Fortnite players voicing their opinion: "That will never happen on my watch as the founder, CEO, and controlling shareholder." It is refreshing to see a tech leader take a stand for free speech while other companies fumble around the topic. Blizzard should be taking notes, but the damage appears to be done as calls for a boycott continue. Epic Games Store has been a target for Internet hatred over the past few months, but this strong statement from Tim Sweeney certainly comes at a welcome time. Keep it locked on Shacknews for more news as it breaks from the front lines of the trade war.
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Shacknews
replyAsif Khan posted a new article, Sweeney supports free speech of players, despite Tencent's Epic Games investment stake
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I'll believe it when I see it.
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Heres how it goes
Shareholder: Hello I am a minority shareholder, I demand you do X.
CEO: Get fucked.
or in the situation where they are on the board with voting rights
Board member: Hello I am a board member, I demand you do X.
CEO: Do you have a majority?
Board member: No.
CEO: With all due respect, get fucked. I look forwards to our continued working relationship.
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Assuming its the average CEO (headstrong asshole with immense self-belief) and not a meek caretaker, they'll believe the price represents the company fundamentals (and their presence) and any hit will be short term. Specifically, this is exactly the tack you're seeing in this story (albeit with Epic Games not being public).
If the CEO/board majority believes China is a strategically valuable/crucial market, the situation is different, but when its just a minority shareholder complaining about their own interests I don't see much influence able to be exerted (in fact its the norm to have minority shareholders disagree with company management), unless united with a bunch of other activist shareholders.
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what has EGS actually done that is bad? yes, it's under-featured but they have added new features every single month. and they had a data leak I believe, but every website and service has basically had one.
so what exactly about 'epic awful launcher' tells us that Tim and Epic would capitulate?-
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And read Mark Kern's comments Asif linked yesterday for a view on Chinese money in the industry.
http://www.shacknews.com/article/114424/evening-reading-october-9-2019-
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Mark Kern is a garbage source btw, an opportunist and a grifter.
At best this applies: https://lifestyle.clickhole.com/heartbreaking-the-worst-person-you-know-just-made-a-gr-1825121606-
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He's basically another Derek Smart, difference is that he mismanaged and cratered far bigger projects.
tldr for the last decade is that he was an ineffective boss who was highly abusive to his workers, he spent millions on a film studio and production equipment to promote his game that wasn't even in pre-alpha (they made other "geek" content that had absolutely nothing to do with the game), he was ousted from his company after bleeding money without shipping anything, after that he hitched his wagon to gamergate and amplified/directed abuse to individuals, and he continues to insert himself whenever some culture war nonsense or drama (or credit himself for WoW Classic).
Oh, and he also made this thing that apparently didn't even work: https://external-preview.redd.it/fuBKdEepJcCxYtO4pFphuAGOs97Sih4uLUwFcqDvZFo.jpg?auto=webp&s=a53eb51ad48bec7f746a6c061be0fe285185c753
Again, he's basically another Derek Smart, addicted to drama and somehow he keeps popping up every couple years. Also like Derek Smart, he's actually right this one time (Star Citizen is a sham, Blizzard cowing to Chinese pressure sucks)
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At this point, Epic has not done anything publicly to show they are in Tencent's/China's pocket. (outside of 40% being owned by Tencent)
The closest tangible thing is when the EGS first came up, it scummed off a lot of data from your Steam profile after you gave it permission. A few reddit posts went full tin-foil, that it was sending that data to China, but Epic later admitted they didn't mean to grab that much. Whether you trust them on that, that's your choice, but that is the full extent that we can document questionable activity.
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There are two Tencent ppl on the board as part of that 40%. https://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/epic-games-gets-1-25-billion-investment-from-seven-firms-1202998408/
But at least to me, that does raise any immediate alarms. Having researched into the video game market in China, if any foreign company wants to play in there, they *have* to go through a Chinese owned firm. And Epic was more seeking Tencents knowledge of how to do GaaS/F2P globally, and only by happenstance stumbled onto Fortnite Battle Royale as a major success.-
Ya the Chinese investors I got to talk to in the past were all very explicit about how you access Chinese consumers through them, they are essentially state funded gate keepers and you need to buy into each province separately because they all have their own independent localized state funded companies that demand money for access. At least in film production it was this way.
Also a massive amount of nepotism and bribery right out in the open like it's just normal business. I got some really nice meals out of it though, they like to butter you up with food and then ask you to give their nephew a job, it's okay because he likes Tarantino and is currently in film school.
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I don't understand how having Chinese shareholders is relevant. I don't think Chinese officials are afraid to tell you exactly what to do or expel you from China if you don't comply whatever your ownership.
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Why do gamers hate the epic store again?
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cause idiots cant spend 2 seconds opening another launcher. they want to erase all the good deeds epic is doing by pumping more money into game developers in exchange for exclusives. theyd rather see indie devs on welfare
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Free games. Surviving Mars is the current freebie.
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Is that a good book to read?
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As an aside, it's weird to me that you can't just go buy new PC games at a store anymore..
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